Just a quick comment about getting used to . A lot of people here are saying it takes a month or two to get used to hearing new or different sounds through hearing aids and for your brain to learn to make sense of the new input. That may not be true for you, especially as you are young. It’s different for everyone, but I was 68 when I first got mine (last year), and yet it took only five seconds to get used to them. The relief was so immense that I’ve worn them every waking second of every day since I walked out of the audiologist’s room with them in my ears. The audio said I’d left it very, very late and I must wear them immediately (not entirely my fault as was due to delays going through our British health system during lockdown etc, and you are only allowed prescription HAs after referrals and tests). From a physical comfort point of view, the domes took longer to get used to — several months. As a musician, I find hearing aids not great for music (I don’t do streaming). But for birdsong they are wonderful. They are unobtrusive and people don’t notice you are wearing them.
private audi/providers will also provide warranties and a trial period for testing out hearing aids.
Yes. I agree with all those who write that you’re asking a ton of questions, many of which will be answered by you yourself after trialing and then purchasing them and using them for a while. It’s really not that complicated, so relax! Your and comments say that you really will benefit from aids. Take it easy, trial a pair. Work with the audiologist/provider to get them initially programmed so that you don’t have feedback, etc. this is easy peasy. Once you’re up and running, the rest will eventually fall into place step by step. So, don’t expect an audi to answer every question that you have on a first visit. It takes time for a new user to adjust to their new hearing reality. Your impressions on day one will be very different on day 12, with no adjustments made. It’s a process. You have to let things play out. Then, you can begin to answer all of your questions based on YOUR experience.
best wishes and good luck! HAs are a very good thing in our lives! take time to revel in all they make possible for you.
I want to thank you everyone for chiming in with all the wonderful advice and encouraging words. I was overwhelmed, worried, scared and cried for the first few days but now I’m feeling positive and a lot lot lot better. the reason why I was crying and felt so down was because I was scared that I will be deaf one day and won’t be able to hear anything at all. The thought that it can happen just scared me. I know it’s hard to know if a loss will stay constant or progress because the loss is different for everyone. Has anyone experienced their loss to stay constant though? i mean is it even possible? Im getting the aids for sure and I will update my journey as it goes. I really have no problem with wearing the aids. The audiologist showed me aids when I was in the office and honestly if I wear it with my hair down I don’t think anyone would ever notice so that wouldn’t be a problem for me. I understand that the aids won’t restore the loss to normal but will help me a lot and improve my quality of life however do you guys think with the help of the aids I can work efficiently in a office environment involving lots of meeting and such? This is actually my most concern factor right now, i graduated 2 years ago but been working at home so most of instructions given to me are mostly through emails and zoom meeting . i was able to get through because I’ve been wearing headphone whenever there’s a meeting. without headphone i would be lost here and there. i turned down 2 job offers earlier this years because they were not remote and im scared to be in the office. right now, im just hoping hearing aids will help me understand speech to the point that i can work efficiently.
im still amazed that lots of people are experiencing hearing loss without even realized though ( including myself) ive been suggesting my friends and family to get their hearing tested every time i run into them and they were like “my hearing is fineeeeee ! youre overreacting” i even proved my point by turn on the water and asked if they can hear the water dripping and none of them could.
I have had hearing aids for over 20 years. Since COVID I have been able to work from home most all the time. I try to e in the office several days a week, though, because the personal team interaction is important mentally and socially. Office environments vary widely. Meetings held in conferenced rooms should be reasonably manageable. Trying to meet with a person while others in your office are doing the same may be challenging,
I do not know where you love. If you are in the US and do have hearing related issues, the (Americans with Disabilities Act) mandates the employer provide a reasonable accommodation. In my experience, if the manager does not wish to even try, the Human Resources department can assist, bit they may require a form from an documenting your hearing loss…
There’s a very good chance that aids will allow you to understand speech. what does your and or clinical audiologist say? It depends a lot on the nature of your loss. Also, do you know if you have conductive loss or sensineural loss? I have conductive loss and recently began wearing a Bone Assisted Hearing Aid (; google it and Cochlear Osia for the latest tech in this) that is brilliant for speech; really remarkable. Better than my regualr aids, which are also very good.
My loss has been pretty stable for decades. so no, you’re not destined to become deaf! again, there are advances in medicine and technology that are happening all the time. Be hopeful, because that’s a realistic thing to do.
Once I noticed how everybody was walking around with buds for phones and such stuck in their ears all the time, I got over my embarrassment about wearing aids. Now I couldn’t care less. I wear behind the ear aids. My hair is somewhat long; just over the ears. No one notices them; no one. They do notice if I’m NOT wearing them however–my hearing is poor then.
I’m delighted with my aids and grateful for them. They give me pleasure and reassurance. Take heart; there’s every chance you’ll feel 180 differently than you do now a month after starting to wear aids. And again, do find out if you have conductive loss. that opens more options for you (BAHA).
im just hoping hearing aids will help me understand speech to the point that i can work efficiently.
Your reasonable Word Recognition Scores are an indication of how much hearing aids can help. I will caution that those tests depend highly on the skill of the tester. My recent test was about 30% higher because the tester used louder sounds, indicating that well adjusted aids could help me. I am pursuing that after an otologist said well adjusted aids should help me handle my losses.
Finding a good audiologist is the largest challenge for most of us here.
@Rain.Drop I would think your audiologist would pick a pair for you that has the best features and strength for your impairment. Also, please do not think that you will pop them into your ears and suddenly be ‘normal’ again. So many people think that and are disappointed. I am glad after all these years, you are finding a solution. Just stick with it, see your audi when you need it,. You’ll do great!
the reason why I was crying and felt so down was because I was scared that I will be deaf one day and won’t be able to hear anything at all. The thought that it can happen just scared me.
Of course, no one can predict the future. But the amount of your hearing loss is quite similar to what mine was when I started wearing about 15 years ago, and now you can see my hearing has gotten worse, yet even at this amount of loss I hear very well with my HAs in. There is no tragedy.
I look at HAs in a similar way to eyeglasses. I was very nearsighted (about -13.5 diopters correction, and another -1.5 astigmatism on top of that) and my lenses looked like the bottoms of bottles, but the glasses did their job and I could see 20:20 or better with them. About 2 years ago I got my natural eye lenses replaced in surgery due to developing cataracts; now I see 20:20 with no glasses (but I need some for reading and close-up). Eyeglasses and hearing aids are wearable appliances that make life better. They are a bit inconvenient but they are very beneficial. Will I someday go blind? Or deaf? Only God knows. In the meantime, why should I worry?
First of all, I wanted to say it’s completely understandable that you felt (maybe still feel sometimes?) overwhelmed and scared. This is a big change and there is a lot of unknown for you. You’re probably feeling some grief, too. It’s all totally normal and you’re taking amazing steps to get informed. If you’re still unsure about what it could be like to lose your hearing completely, you might find the movie “Sound of Metal” interesting. It’s about a drummer who loses his hearing and his journey to figuring out who he is now. Also, there’s a great book that came out recently called “Hear & Beyond: Living skillfully with hearing loss” (https://www.amazon.ca/Hear-Beyond-Live-Skillfully-Hearing/dp/17745816045), written by two smart and funny authors with hearing loss: Gael Hannon and Share Eberts. You might enjoy it and find some guidance and encouragement there too. I follow them on LinkedIn.
I am not a person with hearing loss but I know a lot about and what it means about your understanding of speech. I teach speech pathologists, audiologists, and teacher how to read and explain audiograms. So, I will try to explain what you would hear without hearing aids. That will help you explain it to other people.
Your hearing ‘profile’ is really similar to a lot of people’s and dips down on the right in the higher frequency sounds. You will hear most speech is in the volume range of 40-65 (see left side of the chart). Notice that the lower frequencies are showing X’s (left ear) and O’s (right ear) above 30 dB. This means that you can hear those lower frequency speech sounds pretty well. These are vowel sounds (ah, ee, ai, ow, oh…, also w, y), nasal sounds (n/m/ng), and strong voiced consonants (d, b, g) at least at the beginning of words. So you would be fine to hear a word like beginning in most contexts.
You probably only very faintly hear the “higher frequency” sounds (on the far right) like s/z, sh, th, f even when someone is talking near you in a quiet room. The other consonant sounds p, t, k you will hear somewhere in the middle. In a quiet room you might hear them but as soon as there is some background noise or the person is over 8 ft away from you, or turns their face away from you, you probably won’t hear those sounds (but you’ll still hear the vowels). That’s why words can sound mumbled.
For example, let’s take the word Mom. You should be able to easily hear that word in most listening contexts. Sometimes, you might mishear it sounding like bum or mop though. A word with a lot of consonants in it, like bursts would probably be really hard for you to make sense of. Say you hear the sentence “The painting had bursts of colour”, you would probably understand all the other words if the person was standing right in front of you, but you might still be unsure about bursts. But you would probably feel like you understood the sentence enough. You might think it was something like “The painting had burnt colours”, not a horrible misunderstanding. Other misunderstandings could be more drastic, of course.
Hearing aids boost only the higher frequency sounds so you can hear the s, sh, th, etc better. It’s never going to be a perfect solution though and you will still have trouble understanding speech in noisy environments like restaurants. With lipreading and guessing (based on what you know about English and about the topic of conversation), you can only ‘fill in the blanks’ for a certain amount of time before your brain gets exhausted. Note that most people with typical hearing won’t understand that. So advocate for yourself and give yourself listening breaks.
One problem with your hearing profile is that the people around you will know that you can hear their voices but they won’t understand that you can’t always understand the words. That’s the tricky part that you need to explain to people. You can hear their voices… but you can’t hear every single speech sound. Start taking notes on the misunderstandings you experience and you might see some patterns. You’ll also have good examples to give people when they don’t understand why you need them to look at you when they speak, or when you ask them to get your attention before they speak to you.
You can do this! And remember, it’s totally normal to feel anxious about this big change. As you’re seeing in other people’s posts, it will become no big deal soon enough
Hi Jeffrey,
Thank you for chiming in. I’m not sure what I have. I only saw an audiologist like almost two weeks ago. I have made an appointment with an and will see him in 3.5 weeks. I was told by the ENT office staff that another hearing test will be done to compare result with the one i just had. the audiologist just told me that i have the loss in high frequencies and will benefit me. Im having a phone appointment with her next week, I will write out questions and ask her
. i think my loss is probably genetic though because i have a twin sister and her is similar to mine. The first audiologist and doctor that I saw were a bit surprised by our results. She was like why so similar . I will share our audiograms here. Will the ENT be able know for sure what kind of loss I’m having? I’m actually wondering what kind of procedures will be done by an ENT beside hearing test in order to diagnose the cause of my loss. Does anyone have any experience on this?
I will also look in to . Thank you
Thank you for stopping by, I’m currently living in the US. I’m will definitely look into the . Your shows that you have quite a loss. May I ask if you ever experience any difficulties at work in term of speech recognition when wearing aids? . Are you able to do the the job effectively with the help of aids?
Hiiiiii irene, it’s a relief to see that you can hear very well with the amount of loss you have. Honestly, it makes me feel so much better and have hopes. I actually like my audiologist very much she is very approachable, knowledgeable, patient, human, compassionate and kind that I almost cried when I saw her (lucky I managed not to or else it would be so embarrassed ) . I think I’m in good Hands and I’m sure she will find me a good pair of aids just like you have mentioned. I’m glad I found out about my loss and not wait too long. im still convincing my sister to get helped as soon as possible. Hopefully she will listen. Oh were you about my age when you had the loss that was similar to mine?
Yes I can do this! I’m definitely going to ! Everything you mentioned is exactly how I’m feeling. It’s getting better but it’s still there from time to time. Thank you for explaining what the shows and how these frequencies indicate. I’m now much more educated and understand so much better. I will definitely check out the movie and the book. Thank yoooooooou 3000
loss. May I ask if you ever experience any difficulties at work in term of speech recognition when wearing aids? . Are you able to do the the job effectively with the help of aids?
I have noticed some issues, especially either in meetings where one person is presenting to a large group. Some vendor meetings can be a challenge with heavily accented fast talkers. Sometimes I message a coworker during a meeting to get clarification on something mentioned. I suspect that a new worker with my loss in this position might not fare as well. I have an established record of job performance supporting me. Many times, new workers are viewed as being in a trial period.
A few years ago, when office cubicles were rearranged, I ended up on the end, across from a noisy conference room even though I had asked for a different location. After having hearing issues during a vendor phone call, i again asked to be moved and got ignored. HR gave me a form for the . They did not consider my hearing professional to be a medical professional. After I submitted the paperwork, they ended up putting in a cubicle with higher walls in a quieter area.
I also experienced difficulties understanding professors as well as group discussions in classroom setting when I was in college. I couldn’t understand up to 90%. Again, I thought to myself my English sucks that’s why,
Hey there - welcome.
I know a LOT of your questions have already been answered. I’ve had my hearing profile pretty much since I was a child and it has only marginally changed. Well done on coming here and trying to find answers - that’s an amazing first step.
Can I also just say how utterly amazing it is that you are fluent in a second language given your hearing loss? I use my loss ALL the time as an excuse why I’d struggle to speak a language. I got exemptions from aural (listening) exams in school for French. The fact that you went to college and studied through college shows how strong your coping skills are already. BRAVO!!!
Think of this as the start of a journey. Getting used to is a big step, but there’s no reason why it can’t be a really powerful one for you.
Finally, I thought I’d share some funky HA jewelry available online as you get braver (https://www.instagram.com/deafmetalusa/1). Maybe not your thing, but it might help reassure you that they can be just another accessory!
I’ve never taken a lip reading lesson in my life BUT English is my native language. You probably don’t even know you already lip read in your native language (do you notice the difference if someone talks facing you vs with their mouth covered or face turned away? that’s lipreading!)
I’ve worked in busy corporate environments for years (in in-person roles) and have never had huge difficulties with in-person meetings. I generally place myself in the middle of a table and ensure I can turn to see everyone. I quickly learn who the mumblers are in the company and make extra sure to face them or sit beside them (sometimes facing them is better for lip reading).
I find my biggest challenges are crowded spaces; networking events, big conferences. There, I’ll get overwhelmed with the noise. I generally find a quiet spot and chat to one/two others at most. I also try to make sure I get some downtime before evening events. (Too much detail for you, really, but making the point that you learn to accommodate your needs!)
I find my biggest challenges are crowded spaces; networking events, big conferences.
I had an opportunity to try my Oticon More 1 aids in a noisy room. My neighbor had a bunch of people visiting to meet a local political candidate. I was able to carry on a conversation with a lady at the end of the room even with other discussions happening. I did note one person I definitely could not hear. This is the first time I have been able to do that in years. I hope as the aids get fine tuned that situation improves.
Oh that’s good to hear. I’ve only been at one similar event since I got my last month. I was managing the event, so didn’t really have time to speak to anyone. In saying that, the couple of times I did stop to say hi, it was definitely easier. I also had lunch with a colleague yesterday who has a very strong accent that I sometimes struggled with before. Not a single issue. It’s good to have a reminder to take note of these things, I feel.
Central Virginia
) . I think I’m in good Hands and I’m sure she will find me a good pair of aids just like you have mentioned. I’m glad I found out about my loss and not wait too long. im still convincing my sister to get helped as soon as possible. Hopefully she will listen. Oh were you about my age when you had the loss that was similar to mine?